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David Lawson

Tel: +44 (0)20 7679 8781

Email: d.lawson@ucl.ac.uk
David Lawson

Leverhulme Early Career Research Fellow (2010-2013)

PhD Anthropology (UCL)
MSc Evolutionary Psychology (University of Liverpool)



Research Interests:

My research interests focus on the evolutionary ecology and demography of the human family; particularly the study of family structure, intergenerational resource transfers and child development from the perspective of evolutionary life history theory.

A majority of my research involves quantitative analysis of large-scale social and demographic surveys. Most recently, this includes cross-national comparative work utilising demographic surveys collected across Sub-Saharan Africa, along with ongoing research on contemporary British families with the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children (www.alspac.bris.ac.uk). I have also engaged in collaborative fieldwork based studies of family structure and parental care in developing regions of rural Ethiopia and the Gambia.

David Lawson

Research Publications:

Lawson, D.W., Alvergne, A. & Gibson, M.A. (in prep). The life history trade-off between fertility and child survival.

Lawson, D.W. & Mace R. (2011). Parental investment and the optimisation of human family size. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences 366:333-343

Gibson, M.A. & Lawson, D.W. (2011). ‘Modernization’ increases parental investment and sibling resource competition: evidence from a rural development initiative in Ethiopia. Evolution & Human Behavior 32, 97-105

Lawson, D.W. (2011). Life history theory and human reproductive behaviour. In Swami, V. (Ed) Evolutionary Psychology: A Critical Introduction. p183-214. BPS: Blackwell

Lawson, D.W. & Mace, R. (2010). Siblings and childhood mental health: evidence for a later-born advantage. Social Science and Medicine 70, 2061-2069

Lawson, D.W. & Mace, R. (2010). Optimizing modern family size: Trade-offs between fertility and the economic costs of reproduction. Human Nature 21, 39-61

Lawson, D.W. & Mace, R. (2009). Trade-offs in modern parenting: a longitudinal study of sibling competition for parental care. Evolution & Human Behavior 30, 170-183

Lawson, D.W. & Mace, R. (2008). Sibling configuration and childhood growth in contemporary British families. International Journal of Epidemiology 37, 1408-1421

Sear, R., Lawson, D.W. & Dickins, T. (2007). Synthesis in the human evolutionary behavioural sciences. Journal of Evolutionary Psychology 5, 3-28.

Scott, B.E., Lawson, D.W. & Curtis, V. (2007). Hard to handle: understanding mother’s handwashing behaviour in Ghana. Health Policy & Planning 22, 216-224.

Book Reviews & Commentaries:

Lawson, D.W., (2011). A review of ‘Animal Homosexuality: A Biosocial Approach’ by Aldo Poiani. Animal Behaviour 81, 499.

Lawson, D.W., Jordan, F.M. & Magid, K. (2008). On sex and suicide bombing: an evaluation of Kanazawa’s ‘Evolutionary Psychological Imagination’. Journal of Evolutionary Psychology 6, 73-84.

Lawson, D.W. (2007). Frustrated felines and excited ungulates: a review of ‘Homosexual Behaviour in Animals – An Evolutionary Perspective’. Edited by Volker Sommer and Paul Vasey. Journal of Evolutionary Psychology 5, 257-260.

Other Activities:

  • Steering Committee Member and Secretary of the European Human Behaviour & Evolution Association: 2008-2011.
  • Book Reviews Editor of the Journal of Evolutionary Psychology: 2007-2011.
  • Committee Member of the Biosocial Society: 2011-
  • Reviewing for Journals: American Journal of Human Biology, Behavioural Ecology, Biology Letters, Current Anthropology, Evolution and Human Behaviour, Human Nature, Journal of Biosocial Science, Journal of Evolutionary Psychology, Journal of Marriage and the Family, PloS ONE, Public Health